Things To Do In Pompeii

Below you will find my suggestions for things to do in Pompeii. Starting with Pompeii itself!

1. Visiting The Historic Pompeii: Top Tips

• Wear trainers, bring a rainjacket, sunnies, water, suncream, the usual suspects
• Note: only small umbrellas are allowed into Pompeii (unless, apparently you’re a tour guide and use it to point at things)
• Make sure you turn up early for your tour, if you book one

There is very little shelter in Pompeii. If it’s very hot or rainy, you will feel the wrath of the open Italian skies. For most of our tour, we were lucky and the weather was ok. Towards the end, it turned into a torrential downpour. By God, witnessing an angry storm when in Pompeii feels somewhat evocative and scary, as if Mother Nature is reminding you of her power to end things all over again. God knows what the people who lived here must have felt when Vesuvius lit up the sky.

Askos Tours offer a ‘small group tour with an Archaeologist’. They usually run in the morning and the afternoon in a variety of languages. We paid £42 each at the very end of September 2020. Their reviews on Tripadvisor at the time of booking were very good.

Read more about my suggestions for visiting Pompeii here.

2. Mount Vesuvius: Top Tips

• Allocate a good half day to visit the big Mount V
• It can get windy at the top of the crater so dress accordingly
• If you’re feeling brave, shout or sing into the crater to hear it eerily return your call…see vid below!
• Best not to wear flip flops or sandals. Trainers or walking boots are the one!

Climbing Mount Vesuvius takes around half an hour from the car park, where you set off on foot to the top of the volcano. The walk isn’t too strenuous, it’s all uphill obviously but it’s not too steep. So I would say most people of average fitness will be absolutely fine walking up Mount V.

It’s a good idea to allocate at least half a day for visiting Mount Vesuvius. You could spend the rest of the day visiting Herculaneum, Pompeii or one of the most incredible vineyards which sits on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius.

Read more about my trip to Mount Vesuvius here.

3. Visit a Vineyard: Sorrentino Vesuvio Winery.

Upon arrival at Sorrentino Vesuvio, you may meet Maria Paola, one of the third generation wine-makers from the Sorrentino family. Maria Paola gave us a tour of the many vines at Sorrentino. We learnt so much about the different varieties and ways of growing the vines and it was truly incredible. I won’t spout off (too much…) about it in this post, but you can learn lots more on their website here. The views from Sorrentino are incredible. Mount Vesuvius looms at the edge of the winery, and the vines seem to spread almost right up to it’s feet.

You will hear stories of Maria Paola’s Grandmother and how she brought this place to life after the war and you will see huts where soldiers took shelter on this land. After spending time walking the vines with Maria Paola, we headed inside to the stunning restaurant for wine tasting. It was here that we were to have four courses of wine and a three course meal. I had high hopes for this wine tasting and boy, did it deliver!

Read more about the vineyard I visited here.

4. Be Sure to Sample The Cuisine around Pompeii.

Here are a couple of my favourite places:

Na Pasta: Great for lunch! I found out about Na Pasta in my pre-Italy research of great places to eat in Pompeii. Good job I did, because otherwise I would have walked past this place and not looked back.
So our “quick lunch” suddenly developed into a three course palate party before my very eyes. Starters were Bruschetta (€5) , which was incredible, followed by the Na Pasta Alla Nerano (€7). I can’t even describe it, except to say I had not before tasted pasta until this very day. It was truly beautiful. I was recently asked what would be my desert island/death row meal of choice and I listed this pasta.

Casa Gallo: Casa Gallo is a beautiful little restaurant in the heart of Pompeii, and it has that real Italian charm. The waiters here are really happy to assist with menu choices for both food and wine. Casa Gallo is much more of a traditional “dinner setting” that I would expect from a nice restaurant. Na Pasta is more of a small street-side pasta bar.

So if you’re looking for somewhere you can throw on a nice outfit or whatnot, Casa Gallo is the more traditional of the two.

Read more about places to eat in Pompeii here.

I hope you can make some use of my suggestions of things to do in Pompeii and hope you enjoy as much as I did!